Boxing: Peter defends heavyweight title
Samuel Peter survived three early knockdowns to pull away from Jameel McCline and keep the WBC heavyweight championship Saturday night.
Peter, nicknamed the “Nigerian Nightmare,” was living through his own bad dream in the second and third rounds. But he held on, then dominated the latter rounds for a unanimous decision that was heartily booed by the Madison Square Garden crowd.
McCline, embroiled in controversy as a reported target in a steroids investigation, seemed to be one solid punch away from the championship in the third round. He decked Peter twice, but couldn’t finish him and didn’t have much left the rest of the way.
Peter (29-1) was handed the belt by the WBC after champion Oleg Maskaev dropped out of the fight because of a back injury. Peter said he would show he was deserving of the title with his work in the ring, and after the first three rounds the 27-year-old fighter did just that.
McCline, who was supposed to fight on the undercard before being moved up to the big bout, dropped to 38-8-3.
The headline fight was in doubt early Friday when a newspaper reported that McCline received large amounts of steroids and other banned substances in 2005 and 2006. The 37-year-old McCline had a prefight physical Thursday, and the boxers were tested for performance-enhancing and illegal drugs in the hours before the fight. Results are expected in about five days.
Pacquiao wins rematch
Although Marco Antonio Barrera kept his feet, Manny Pacquiao kept his supremacy.
Pacquiao beat Barrera for the second time, winning a gritty unanimous decision at Las Vegas nearly four years after the Philippines’ favorite son became a boxing superstar with an upset victory over Barrera.
Neither fighter generated many fireworks until a strong finish in their 130-pound bout at Mandalay Bay. But not even an illegal 11th-round blow by Barrera could slow down the lightning-quick Pacquiao, who showed his world-class reflexes haven’t slowed in his sixth straight victory.
Barrera lost a point for a head shot that discombobulated Pacquiao after the referee moved in to separate them in the 11th, but Pacquiao recovered in time to reach the final bell.
“In the undercard, Steven Luevano emphatically defended his WBO featherweight title, unanimously outpointing a bloodied Antonio “T-Rex” Davis.
Librado Andrade also won the vacant USBA 168-pound title with a seventh-round TKO of Yusaf Mack earlier in the evening at Mandalay Bay.